This week’s cookbook was another from Gordon Ramsay – Gordon Ramsay’s Secrets. Our daughter chose the recipes this week, and boy did she go for it – one of the recipes took all week – Duck Bresaola! However, it was a bit of a mixed bag week; some things worked well, others not so much. That said, even the things that didn’t quite work did show some promise. We started with the extravagant Salad of Truffle-dressed Scallops, which was good (albeit the truffles were overpowering). Up next was a rather lovely Roasted Tomato Soup, which was incredibly creamy without a hint of cream anywhere. Sunday dinner was a Roast Chicken with Cardamom Carrots which we served with Pommes Dauphinoise and cabbage. The chicken was done as a crown and separate legs – not a technique we’ve done before. The breasts were packed with herb butter. We have to say that herb butter made a massive difference to the tastiness of the breasts, which can sometimes be a bit uninspiring.
The Dauphinoise this week was a massive improvement on the recipe from a couple of weeks ago. They were delicious this week and were fantastic the day after! Without a doubt, the star of the week was Sea Bass Baked on a Bed of Herbs – genuinely delicious, very easy and fab! Now to some recipes that showed promise but need a bit of work. Chocolate and Tiramisu Parfait were tasty, but the rum we used seemed to cause the base to split. The Salad of Roasted Baby Beets with Balsamic Dressing was lovely – except that I left the beets overnight sitting on the rock salt that they were baked on – oops – way too salty beets. Pan-fried Salmon with Bacon and Red Wine Sauce has a lot of potential – I burnt the shallots in the sauce, which was unrecoverable. Though burnt, we could see the flavour of the sauce would have been perfect. So to the Duck Bresaola – this cured duck was a lovely little starter and was fun to make. Next week we’re going to get our fix of Mark Hix.This weeks cookbook was another from Gordon Ramsay – Gordon Ramsay’s Secrets. Our daughter chose the recipes this week, and boy did she go for it – one of the recipes took all week – Duck Bresaola! However, it was a bit of a mixed bag week; some things worked really well, others not so much. That said, even the things that didn’t quite work did show some promise. We started with the extravogant Salad of Truffle dressed Scallops which was good (albeit the truffles a touch overpowering). Up next was a rather lovely Roasted Tomato Soup, which was incredibly creamy without a hint of cream anywhere. Sunday dinner was a Roast Chicken with Cardamom Carrots which we served with Pommes Dauphinoise and cabbage. The chicken was done as a crown and separate legs – not a technique we’ve done before. The breasts were packed with herb butter. We have to say that herb butter made a massive difference to the tastiness of the breasts, which can sometimes be a bit uninspiring.
The Dauphinoise this week was a massive improvement on the recipe from a couple of weeks ago. They were delicious this week and were fantastic the day after! The star of the week, without a doubt, was Sea Bass Baked on a Bed of Herbs – genuinely delicious, very easy and fab! Now to some of the recipes that showed promise but need a bit of work. Chocolate and Tiramisu Parfait was tasty, but the rum we used seemed to cause the base to split. The Salad of Roasted Baby Beets with Balsamic Dressing was lovely – except that I left the beets overnight sitting on the rock salt that they were baked on – oops – way too salty beets. Pan-fried Salmon with Bacon and Red Wine Sauce has a lot of potential – I burnt the shallots in the sauce, which was unrecoverable. The flavour of the sauce, through burnt, we could see, would have been perfect. So to the Duck Bresaola – this cured duck was a lovely little starter and was fun to make. Next week we’re going to get our fix of Mark Hix.